The medieval romance of King Copethua and the beggar maid, Penelophon, tells of how the king one day chanced to glance upon the young beggar maid and fell in love at first sight. The king demanded that the maid be brought before him, vowing that she would be his wife or he would end his life. Penelophon met the king and agreed to wed him; she was soon transformed into a proper queen.

Yggdrasil is the great world tree that lies at the center of the nine worlds within the cosmological order of Norse mythology. The tree unites the nine worlds, including the heavens and the world of the dead, and is tended by the Norns, a group of female beings similar to the Fates.